


Puberphonia

by Superslamer



Category: None - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29199960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superslamer/pseuds/Superslamer
Summary: I wrote this story back in August  2020, I do believe. Enjoy!By Matthis SpencerEdits by StrawberryPuberphonia (also known as mutational falsetto, functional falsetto, incomplete mutation, adolescent falsetto, or pubescent falsetto) is a functional voice disorder that is characterized by the habitual use of a high-pitched voice after puberty, hence why many refer to the disorder as resulting in a ‘ falsetto ’ voiceWarning:This contains mentions/indications of bullying, bad thoughts, mental illness and has explicit language. This is sensitive content, reader discretion advised





	Puberphonia

‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kidding me, please leave me alone…’ Keenan thinks to himself as he walks through the hallways.

“Hey mute! Why don’t ya respond? Nervous? You like me or something?” Joel, the college’s bully, says in a provoking tone.

Keenan shakes his head indicating no and tries to leave but Joel pushes him against the wall, stopping him from leaving.

“Listen here, and listen well. I don’t give a shit if you can’t speak, but I want you to use that brain. You better meet me back here in two periods with my essay done. Got it?”

Keenan’s eyes widen and narrow with confusion along with rebuttal, as if saying ‘that’s impossible!’

“Tell me one good reason why you shouldn’t do my homework. Oh, wait, you can’t!” Joel scornfully laughs, “Good luck. This better be good.” He sneers as he drops Keenan and hands him the paper.

Keenan stands there in disbelief. This has happened before, but he never had to do it in such a short period of time. He walks away to his next class, hoping he can get a break so he can work on it and get it over with. 

“Asshole.” He gently mumbles to himself and proceeds to walk into the classroom. 

“Today, class, we won’t be doing just any math, we’ll be doing... MATH JEOPARDY!” The teacher announces with enthusiasm.

‘Great, no way I’m getting this damn essay done. Fuck me.’ Keenan thinks to himself again. ‘Why does this have to happen to me? Why can’t I just be normal like everyone else. Have a normal voice, be able to stand up for myself... anything...’

“Keenan! You there bud?” Says his friend, Spencer, waving her hand in front of his face in a confused manner.

Keenan nods and turns his attention to the teacher and the board, helping his teammates figure out the problems presented to them. The bell rings, telling the class they can leave. The teacher informs them that they all have a project to complete and that they can see their assigned partners on the google docs that have been shared with them. Additionally announcing that Team Purple, Keenan’s team, has won the game. He felt a sense of pride from winning that silly, but fun, little game; that sense of worth immediately falls as he remembers the essay. That damned essay. He wouldn’t get to see the light of day again, math was the only time he had to do it since history he ha- ... lunch. He forgot he had lunch before history, and since he had lunch during Joel’s next period he could get it done then.

“Dude! You there? You gotta stop doing that!” Spencer yells, once again waving her hand at him.

Keenan signed ‘sorry’.

“It’s fine, but are you sure you’re not deaf, too?” Spencer says jokingly.

Keenan smiled and shook his head.

“Okay, come on, I’m hungry!”

Spencer ushers Keenan out of the classroom and to the parking lot so they can get MacDanolds.

“You wanna drive?”

Keenan shakes his head ‘no’.

“Okay, drive through or walk in?”

Keenan signs ‘walk in’.

“Alright! Let’s go!” Spencer says excitedly.

At the MacDanolds, they wait in the line to order and Keenan writes down what he wants. He shows his phone to Spencer as they walk up to the register so she can order for him. The cashier sees this and doesn’t seem too happy.

“What are you doing?” The cashier blurts.

“Pardon?”

“He can order for himself. He’s an adult.”

“Umm, he’s an adult but he can’t speak.”

“Don’t bullshit me, I don’t get paid enough for this shit.”

“Then, uh, shut up? You didn’t have to say anything, you know?”

The cashier scoffs and takes their order reluctantly, rolling their eyes every once in a while.

“Dumbass.” They whisper under their breath, Keenan heard, Spencer didn’t.

They get their food and sit down, the cashier still giving them the side eye.

“Hey, you alright?” Spencer questions.

Keenan shakes his head ‘no’, wanting to cry, but holds it back. After they finish eating and cleaning up, they head back to the school. Half way back, Keenan gasps.

“What? You okay?” Spencer asks, concerned.

Keenan shakes his head ‘no’ and pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket, unfolds it and shows it to Spencer. She quickly reads the title and name at the top. ‘Joel Muster, Why we should take care of global warming’. 

“Really?! He’s making you do his work again? When’s it due?”

Keenan nods and signs ‘now’.

“Hecc, you’ve got to be kidding me. He won’t read though it, you can just half do it; plus it would make sense because of how dumb he is.”

Keenan pouts, he doesn’t like doing things half way through, and he doesn’t believe people are dumb, he believes they don’t care and just don’t know how to do some things.

“I know, I know, but that kid is truly dumb. I couldn’t even teach him! And that’s saying something, cuz I once taught a 10 year old how to do trig. level II.”

Keenan gently sighs, looks down, and prays that he can get this done. They pull up to the school and head to the library, turns out they finished lunch a bit early so Keenan gets straight to work. 10 minutes later, the bell rings to head to their next classes.

“Good luck, you got a bit done so I hope you don’t die. Love you dude, stay safe.” Spencer smiles at him.

Keenan smiles back, and they go separate ways. Walking down the hall, Keenan tries to keep his head down not wanting to see Joel again.

‘Please… Please don’t be here. Get in trouble and just not be here, please.’ Keenan gets snapped out of his thoughts by Joel slamming him into the wall once again.

“You better have it.”

Keenan hands Joel the paper, slightly shaking from the impact and fear of facing him again. Joel snatches the paper and reads over it, he looks up, back down, then back up again.

“This is good enough. You’re lucky I’m in a better mood, or else, you know…” Joel makes a line across his throat.

Keenan gulps, knowing exactly what he meant.

“See you later, loser.” Joel walks off to his English class a couple doors down the hall.

Letting out a shaky sigh, Keenan makes his way into his history class, going to the back and barely making it into his chair before the bell went off.

The end of the day rolls around and Keenan and Spencer meet up at their cars.

“Welp, you’re still alive so I’m going to assume he didn’t try to kill you.”

Keenan nods.

“Okay, cool. Well, see ya later?”

Keenan shrugs.

“Well, what’s that supposed to mean?”

Keenan shrugs again.

“You can be so confusing sometimes.”

Keenan smirks and gets into his car, starts it, waves to Spencer, and pulls off. Spencer waves after him.

When Keenan gets home, he barely gets inside before he breaks down. Slamming the door behind him, he drops his bag and lays on the couch.

“Why! Why do you let them push you around?! Are you stupid?!”

He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t, all he could do was sob. He pulls out his phone, wondering if he should text Spencer but all he could get down was some random gibberish before he accidentally hit send.

“Are you dumb?! She’s gonna- “

Before he could get anything else out, he breaks down, finally being able to cry. But no, he couldn’t just cry in peace.

Spencer pulled up to the house and moved the doorknob, being grateful that it was unlocked, and pushed it open to see her best friend crying his eyes out on his couch.

“O M Goodness are you okay?! Of course you’re not!” Spencer runs over to her friend, sits him up and hugs him as tightly as she can.

After a couple of minutes, Keenan calms down and Spencer loosens her grip.

“What happened?”

“I-I… don’t wanna deal with this anymore *sob* Everyone hates me because I’m different. You saw the cashier. Joel makes fun of me almost everyday because I don’t respond *hic* I don’t wanna be here anymore, and I… I can’t stand up for myself *gasp* b-because of my stupid voice a-and…and…” Keenan breaks down again, becoming a sobbing mess, almost falling off the couch but Spencer catches him and pulls him into a hug.

Spencer gently rubs Keenan’s back, shushing him every time he tries to speak, whispering little nothings to him like, “It’s gonna be okay.” “They don’t understand.” “I love you, that’s all that matters.” “Don’t worry about them.” and so on. Keenan calms down once again and pulls away from the hug.

“I’m sorry… that you have to deal with me…”

“Don’t be, it’s who you are, and I love you for it.”

“I… love you too.” Keenan smiles.

Spencer smiles back. “You know, your voice is actually really nice.”

“S-shut up. No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is. Now,” Spencer stands up from the floor “wanna make cupcakes?”

“I- There is no winning this, is there?” Keenan also stands.

“Nope!” Spencer smiles. “You wanna make cupcakes?”

Keenan smiles at how adorable Spencer is when she gets excited. “Sure.”

“YAY!” Spencer runs off to the kitchen and starts to set up.

Keenan walks into the kitchen and they get started. After the cupcakes are finished, they pack up and drive to the beach. Sitting on the sand, they both munch on cupcakes.

“You know, you make really good cupcakes. And have a really steady hand.” Keenan takes a bite of his cupcake.

“Thank you! I learned from my momma!” Spencer smiles widely, almost childly.

Keenan giggles and takes another bite of his cupcake.

“I’m really happy you are actually talking to me. You could have stopped after you calmed down, but you didn’t.”

“Well that’s cuz I trust you. You’ve been my best friend since the beginning of college, and we didn’t even meet there.”

“Right, we met at the coffee shop near your house. It was a lucky coincidence that we are going to the same college.”

“I still can’t believe that for 3 years, ever since we met, I’ve haven’t spoke to you once, and you never pushed me to. Why’d you even choose me? There were like 5 other better looking, and speaking, guys there, and you chose me.”

“Well, you looked lonely, and the vibe you gave off was much better than the others.”

“So, you go by vibes and not looks?”

“Yes, why would I go for looks? They tend to be shallower.” Spencer looks forward, towards the sun.

“Fair enough… Hey,”

“Hmm?” Spencer keeps her head forward.

“Thank you, really, for staying with me throughout everything. I lost most of my friends when I went mute and the rest of them once I moved.”

Spencer looks at Keenan. “Well, think about it. They clearly don’t care about you like I do cuz even if you did move, I would still bother you every day.”

“How?”

“I would follow you no matter where you went.”

“But I’m pretty sure I would go to hell if I died, and an angel like you would go to heaven.”

Spencer smacks Keenan. “You dummy, you’re coming with me, even if I had to drag you against God’s word.”

“Suuuurrrreee.”

“Heccin’ fight me bro.”

They sit down their cupcakes and start to chase each other around the beach. After about 10 minutes they sit back down to enjoy the sunset. Spencer leans her head on Keenan’s shoulder and falls asleep.

“Good night, idot.”

“You’re the idot” Spencer mumbles in her sleep.

Keenan gives her a kiss on the head and waits for her to wake up.


End file.
